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San José, Jul 10 (Prensa Latina) The revocation by the United States of the tourist visa of the president of the Legislative Assembly, Rodrigo Arias, is having a great impact on Costa Rican society.

The decision transmitted the day before by Washington, which also implied the cancellation of the document of Constitutional Court judge Paul Rueda, was confirmed by the press office of the Constitutional Court, according to the newspaper Delfino.cr.

Arias, for his part, admitted in a statement that the U.S. decision to withdraw his tourist visa generated “a deep surprise”, and said he did not know “any objective reason that merits it, since all my life I have had a friendly and respectful relationship with the United States”.

The legislative authority set 14:59 (local time) as the time when he was notified by the Embassy in Washington about the cancellation, and expressed his confidence “in getting to know the reasons for this decision, for me incomprehensible”.

The President of the country, Rodrigo Chaves, on his part, described in a press conference as “shameful” that the leader of the Congress and the Vice President, Vanessa Castro, are prevented from entering the northern country.

The new visa revocation extends the list of high-ranking local officials who have been deprived of that right by the United States during the current administration of President Donald Trump, including the brother of the leader of Congress, former President Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The legislative leader is also the fifth Tico deputy to be banned from entering the United States, after Francisco Nicolás Alvarado, Vanessa de Paul Castro, Johana Obando and Cynthia Córdoba, although that right was also invalidated to legislator José Pablo Sibaja, but without a visa.

Others affected by the measure are the auditor of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) Ana Sofía Machuca; the Telecommunications manager of that entity, Luis Diego Abarca; and the former managers Carlos Luis Mecutchen and Jaime Palermo.

Also from that energy agency were affected the head of the Development and Construction Division of the Network, Douglas Eduardo; and the president of the union Internal Front of ICE Workers, Carlos Stradi.

According to Delfino.cr, the U.S. embassy and the Department have so far refrained from offering details on the reasons for the above mentioned revocations, although the official position of that country regarding the omission of individual explanations in these cases is well known.

The news about the visa cancellations on Wednesday arrived when the legislature began the plenary session of the day in Congress, headed by its president, who left the premises after delegating Vice President Vanessa de Paul Castro to lead the debate.

The Marker alleges that Peña Nieto received US$25 million in bribes to authorize the use of the Israeli spyware system. On Tuesday, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced the launch of an investigation into former President Enrique Peña Nieto, a conservative politician who led the country from 2012 to 2018.

The probe was triggered by a report published by the Israeli outlet The Marker, which alleged that Peña Nieto received US$25 million in bribes to authorize the use of the Israeli spyware system Pegasus on Mexican soil.

“We have already opened a case file, of course, and we will request from the Israeli authorities the information that was made public so we can formally incorporate it and move forward,” said FGR Director Alejandro Gertz.

During the administration of current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018–2024), the FGR received several complaints regarding the Pegasus software, but these were not substantiated with sufficient evidence.

“What we are doing now is formally asking the Israeli government, through the international legal assistance system, for authorization so that these claims can be framed within a legal context and not fall into the same void as unsupported complaints,” Gertz added.

According to The Marker, the most high-profile deal negotiated by Pegasus sales agents was the sale of the spyware, developed by Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group, to several Mexican institutions. These included the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), the now-defunct Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN).

On Monday, Peña Nieto dismissed The Marker’s report as “false and malicious,” claiming he never held a position that made him responsible for authorizing such contracts. He also stated that Pegasus was not used for spying during his administration, but rather as a tool to “strengthen intelligence capabilities, create security conditions, and fight organized crime.”

In 2021, however, an international media investigation revealed that several countries used Pegasus to target 50,000 phones, including 15,000 in Mexico during Peña Nieto’s administration. The probe found that communications belonging to activists, journalists, then-opposition leader Lopez Obrador, and his aides were intercepted. The Israeli software was also used to monitor the families of the 43 students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa.

Washington is expected to send interceptors for Patriot systems, precision artillery shells, and air-to-surface missiles. On Monday, President Donald Trump said he will send more weapons to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russia, following a temporary pause in some shipments due to a routine review by the Pentagon.

“We have to send more weapons. We must do it so they can defend themselves. They’re being attacked very hard,” Trump told reporters during a dinner at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. president specified that the weapons will be “mostly defensive.” He also expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to agree to a ceasefire and stop bombing Ukraine.

“I’m not at all happy with President Putin,” Trump said, echoing similar comments he made last week. “I stop wars, and I hate to see people dying,” the Republican president added.

Earlier Monday, the White House said the suspension of certain arms shipments to Ukraine, announced last week, is temporary and part of a routine review of the U.S. military assistance program for foreign allies. Among the weapons that Washington could send to Ukraine are interceptors for Patriot air defense systems, precision artillery shells, and air-to-surface missiles for U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that, following a phone call with Trump, the two agreed to work together to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. Ukraine hopes Trump’s pledge to unblock the weapons shipments will be implemented as soon as possible.

“Every day of delays raises the cost — for all of us,” said Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who is the Ukrainian official with the most direct contact with the Trump administration. She also called on NATO allies to help Ukraine build integrated air defense systems and boost joint arms production efforts.

Moscow, Jul 9 (Prensa Latina) Russia's presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said today that his country had warned the United States from the beginning that it was impossible to resolve the Ukrainian conflict overnight.

With this statement the Kremlin spokesman reacted to the recent statements of US President Donald Trump, in which he admitted that the differences between Moscow and Kiev were more difficult to resolve than he expected.

In this context, the head of the Eurasian giant's Presidential Press Office asserted that his government is quite calm with the “hardening of rhetoric” against the Slavic nation by the White House tenant.

“Trump in general has a rather harsh style in the phrases he uses,” Peskov assured, commenting on the US leader's words in which he accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of throwing “a lot of shit” at them.

However, the official expressed hope that Washington will continue efforts to resolve the differences between Moscow and Kiev through diplomatic channels.

“We also hope that despite all the decisions on the resumption of arms supplies and so on, although no one has actually stopped any supplies, but even despite this, we still hope that Trump and his team will continue efforts to bring the process of resolving the Ukrainian conflict to a political and diplomatic level,” he said.

On the other hand, Peskov asserted that Russia is waiting for a proposed date for the third round of negotiations from the Ukrainians.

This should interest Ukraine, because the situation on the ground changes on a daily basis. “We are moving forward every new day, the Ukrainian side will have to agree with the new realities,” the spokesman referred.

The day before, the US head of state expressed his disappointment with his Russian counterpart. "Putin throws a lot of shit at us. If you want to know the truth, he's very nice all the time, but it turns out he has no relevance," Trump indicated.

In this regard, he stated that he is “strongly” looking to introduce new sanctions against Moscow.

Along these lines, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday that the stance demonstrated by the American dignitary exemplifies how they use unilateral measures as political pressure.

“This speech once again confirms that the United States continues to use economic-trade tools, whether illegitimate sanctions, tariffs, whatever, as an element of political pressure and hides behind the slogans of honest competition and national security,” the diplomat said.

The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that Washington's attitude demonstrates its destructive approach to the current architecture of international economic cooperation and violates the rules of the World Trade Organization.